Understanding customer credit checks

What is Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR)?

Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) is a credit reporting system where lenders share consumer credit information (positive and negative) with credit reporting bodies.

Information is collated from lenders and is detailed in the individual’s credit report. This enables lenders to access comprehensive information about a potential borrower’s credit history so they can make more informed decisions when assessing credit applications.

Benefits of CCR include:

Lenders can make more informed decisions based on a comprehensive view of an applicant’s credit history.
Generally, CCR has removed the requirement to provide loan statements for home loans being refinanced.

How can I run a credit report?

When preparing an application for your customer, you can run a credit report for your customer using Access Seeker in ApplyOnline. Once requested, you’ll receive an Equifax One Score report for all applicants, which is the same type of report that we use in our assessment. This a free service, which will help you provide accurate data and reduce follow up from our team.

Once you start an application in ApplyOnline for your customer, simply go to the Financial Passport section on the Applicant tab to get started.

What should I check on a credit report for my customer?

Please follow the below checklist to help you review the credit report thoroughly and use the data provided to submit an accurate application. In turn, this will help our team assess the application faster and provide you a response.

Repayment history information (RHI)

The credit report will provide the repayment history information from the past 24 months. Generally, if your customer has strong account conduct (e.g. each account is ‘0’ for at least the past six months), you won’t need to provide additional information. If your customer has missed a repayment recently, their application may be subject to greater scrutiny in our assessment.

Financial hardship information (FHI)

If your customer’s report shows FHI in the past 12 months, you may need to provide additional information to support the application.

Liability information

Within Access Seeker in ApplyOnline, you can use the liability verification tool to either pre-populate your customer’s liabilities or check the application data against their credit report. This step will ensure you’ve considered all open liabilities, have accurate limits and expiry dates.

Where you’ve chosen not to use the information for a liability listed in the credit report, ensure you’ve provided further detail in your broker notes and provided additional documents, where required (e.g. if your customer is planning to close a credit card limit before settlement). This will reduce follow up from our credit team.

Refinancing

Use the credit report to check the details of the accounts to be closed against details in refinance applications, including credit limits and account numbers. This will ensure a smooth settlement process.

How do I read an Equifax Access Seeker credit report?

Outlined below are section descriptions for the Equifax Access Seeker credit report:

Report summary

Section	Description
Comprehensive Score	Overall credit risk from a scorecard displayed as a number (e.g. 900).
Headlines	A summary of: the number of accounts held in the last 24 months any defaults total aggregate limit of facilities held worst repayment history (RHI) status in the last 24 months.
Credit enquiries & defaults	Total number and dollar value of any enquiries or defaults.
Personal insolvencies & court actions	Total number of any insolvencies or court actions.
Accounts & repayments	Accounts by each product type (e.g. personal loans), total current credit limits and worst repayment status.
Business relationships	Summary of the directorships and business names held by the individual.
Identity details	Summary of available information including any cross-referenced credit bureau files.

Detailed summary

Section	Description
Credit enquiries	If an individual has applied for credit, information including date, name of the financial institution (enquirer), account type, amount applied for and applicant role will be listed in this section.
Insolvencies & court actions	A detailed overview of any insolvency the individual has entered, as well as any court actions, writ or summons actions taken against the individual.
Accounts & repayments	Where applicable, this section provides details of the individual’s credit accounts. This includes: type of account, open date and name of financial institution status and latest limit of amount owed repayment history (RHI) - see information detailing the status codes other details including the relationship of the individual to the account (e.g. Principal), term, as well as the number of account holders and loan repayment method (e.g. variable or fixed).
Defaults	Information on an individual’s defaults where the subscriber (credit provider) lists a payment default, including the date, amount and latest status.
Business relationships	Identifies if the individual has proprietorships or directorships including current, previous, and disqualified. Includes: name of the entity (proprietorship or directorships) date file number other status information.

What are the Repayment History Information (RHI) Status Codes?

Within the Credit Enquiries section of the credit report, the ‘ID Source’ provides information about the RHI for each credit account held by the individual.

CCR RHI Status Code	Description	Description/ Number of missed payments
0	The credit facility is current
1	Up to 29 days overdue	Up to 1 missed payment
2	30-59 days overdue	2 missed payments
3	60-89 days overdue	3 missed payments
4	90-119 days overdue	4 missed payments
5	120-149 days overdue	5 missed payments
6	150-179 days overdue	6 missed payments
X	180+ days overdue	More than 6 missed payments
R	Not reported - Repayment data was not reported for this period
P	Pending – Repayment data has not been reported yet for this period (applies if the repayment period is the current month or the month preceding the enquiry)
C	The facility is closed

Where can I find financial hardship information (FHI) on a credit report?

When viewing a credit report, financial hardship information will be available under the individual accounts, similar to the RHI on your customer's comprehensive credit report.

If your customer enters a financial hardship arrangement with their lender, their monthly record will be updated with:

an 'A' (for arrangement) which will appear each month that the applicant is under that arrangement
a 'V' if your customer needs to vary their loan agreement (e.g. at the end of a hardship arrangement to re-amortise their loan). It will appear for that month noting that the loan agreement has been varied.

When does financial hardship information (FHI) appear on a customer’s credit report?

When a customer enters a financial hardship arrangement or varies a loan agreement due to hardship, information will be sent to a central credit reporting agency. This information may be made available to other lenders who subscribe to reports provided by the central credit reporting agency.

How does financial hardship information impact the credit assessment?

Where any ‘A’ or ‘V’ is present on an assessment, Macquarie will seek to understand the applicant's reasons for hardship and use this information in the credit assessment to determine the suitability of the application.

For further information about Financial Hardship and credit reporting, see Understanding the impact of Financial Hardship Assistance on Personal Help Centre.

Note: Where the repayment history information (RHI) has been updated with an ‘A’, which indicates missed repayments, your application may be subject to greater scrutiny.

View all

Search Help Centre

Input search

Track your applications, view our processing times and easily access your existing customer's loan details, all within Macquarie Broker Portal.

Search Broker Help Centre

Find answers faster to your everyday queries with Broker Help Centre. Search by keywords or by category to find exactly what you need, when you need it.

Start searching

Meet the team

Our BDM team provides you and your customers with world-class service and the support you need throughout the home loan journey. Get to know the BDMs in your state today.

Talk to a BDM